Season 1961-62 saw Vale reach the final of the Scottish Qualifying Cup against Gala Fairydean. The first leg at Victoria Park finished 3-3, with Gala emerging victorious in the second leg 1-0.

This meant that Vale had qualified for the Scottish Cup proper again and this saw the biggest football match ever to be staged in Innerleithen when Heart of Midlothian were drawn to visit Victoria Park in the Second Round on the 27th of January 1962.

The national press - and Hearts too - tried to get the game switched to Tynecastle, which would have been more financially beneficial to both sides but the SFA maintained that they had every confidence in Vale being able to host the tie. The police decided that the game must be all-ticket and set a crowd limit of 3,500, although they later allowed another 200 tickets to be released. The demand locally was so great that only 1,500 of these tickets went to Hearts. The day of the game was a lovely sunny winter afternoon and Victoria Park looked a picture with it's 3,700 crowd, which remains Vale's record gate.

Vale nearly caused a sensational opening. Just after kick-off, Hearts conceded a free kick just inside their half and when Vale left-back Stenhouse put a high ball into the Hearts area, the Hearts defence expected the ball to run out for a goal-kick. However, Vale's outside-right Tommy Graham caught up with the ball on the line and squared it across goal towards outside-left Weir. Unfortunately the ball fell just behind him and Hearts keeper Cruikshank came out to smother the ball. After 4 minutes, Vale centre-forward Freddie Morrison beat Hearts centre-half Cumming and as Cruikshank came out of his goal, Morrison neatly lobbed him, but the ball bounced agonisingly on top of the bar and over. The excitement seemed to be too much even for the match ball as after 6 minutes it burst and had to be replaced! Hearts opened the scoring in the 14th minute and went on to complete a 5-0 victory, with their goals coming from a Gordon hat-trick, Bauld and a Kirk penalty.

Season 1962-63 saw no honours coming to Victoria Park, but the Vale team contained some well known players such as ex-Hibs right-half Jimmy Thomson, ex-Airdrie players Jimmy Welsh & Hugh 'Golden' Goldie and Bernie Kelly who had played for Raith Rovers & Birmingham City.

In 1964 Honourary Secretary Mr Sanderson was appointed to the SFA council as a representative of the East of Scotland and Border Counties. In all he served on the SFA council for 10 years on the Coaching, Finance and Appeal committees.

Season 1964-65 saw Vale reach the semi-final of the Scottish Qualifying Cup, but beaten by Peebles Rovers 5-2 after a 1-1 draw in Innerleithen. However Vale had a visit from Stirling Albion in the 2nd Preliminary Round of the Scottish Cup. The game was played on a hard frosty pitch in front of a crowd of 550 and Stirling adapted much better to the conditions, winning 5-0.

1966 was the year that England hosted the World Cup (you might have heard something about it). France, one of the competing countries, had a two week stay at Peebles Hydro Hotel as part of their preparations, during which three practice games were set up in Galashiels, Innerleithen & Selkirk. Peebles Rovers were playing in Junior football at the time, so could not take part. As clubs were not allowed to play international sides the opposition to France were billed as East of Scotland Select teams. This meant that Vale had to include a guest player to make it a select and included Alex Steadman, a Selkirk player who had previously turned out for Vale. The game at Victoria Park resulted in a 8-0 victory for the French, with the fast, skilful French players a delight to watch for the large crowd.

Vale reached the final of the Scottish Qualifying Cup in season 1966-67. In the First Round Vale travelled to Wigtown & Bladnoch and won 4-1. Another away tie in Girvan in the Second Round saw a 2-0 victory. Drawn at home to St Cuthbert Wanderers in the Third Round, Vale only managed a 1-1 draw, then drew by the same score in the replay. A third game at Palmerston Park, Dumfries though saw Vale get through 3-1, and this set up a semi-final meeting with Hawick Royal Albert who were beaten 2-1. The final was against Gala Fairydean but after a 5-3 Gala victory in the first leg at Victoria Park, they completed the job at their own ground winning 3-2.

On December 16th 1966 Vale were at home to Berwick Rangers in the Scottish Cup First Preliminary Round. The famous Jock Wallace was in goal for Berwick and Vale had a second minute goal disallowed, but eventually lost 8-1. Berwick then went on to the First Round proper to register one of the biggest shocks the Scottish Cup has ever seen when they beat Glasgow Rangers 1-0.

In the 1967-68 season Scottish Qualifying Cup, Vale were drawn at home against Whithorn - a chance to avenge the 1955 defeat, which they did by winning 11-0. However, Vale lost to Hawick Royal Albert in the semi-final and to the same side in the First Round of the Scottish Cup. Vale got some revenge when they put Hawick Royal Albert out of the East of Scotland Qualifying Cup 2-0 after a 2-2 draw at Hawick, but lost 1-0 to Kelso in the semi-final.

Vale reached the semi-final of the Scottish Qualifying Cup again in season 1968-69, and were drawn away to Dumbarton in the Scottish Cup. Ian Whitehead opened the scoring for Vale in the 9th minute, and despite Jimmy Duncan also scoring, the home team won 3-2.

1969-70 saw yet another Scottish Qualifying Cup semi-final place and a home tie in the Scottish Cup against Hamilton Academical. In another close game attended by 250, Hamilton won 2-1.

1969 also saw the opening of the Vale of Leithen Social Club, in what was formerly the Liberal Club in Leithen Crescent. The premises were bought from the Ballantyne brothers and opened in time for Innerleithen Games Week.